Search

Beef & Cabbage Stir Fry

Monday, April 22, 2013

Happy Monday! I hope you had a wonderful weekend and are ready for this new week ahead. Now that tax season is officially in that most of us have already filed our taxes by the deadline, I can't help but think of budget meals. A budget friendly meal I made recently is this Beef & Cabbage Stir Fry. This is a dish my mom made growing up and is considered a nostalgic favorite among me and my siblings. Ground beef is stir fried with shredded cabbage and a soy sauce based sauce before serving up over steamed rice. Easy, affordable and delicious...
What makes this a budget meal is that it uses affordable ingredients and stretches it out to feed plenty. Ground beef, half a head of cabbage {roughly 2-3 cups shredded} and some Asian pantry staples like soy sauce {or in my case, gluten free tamari}, oyster sauce and cornstarch are stir fried together. It comes together rather quickly so you can easily have dinner on the table in less than 30 minutes from start to finish.

When I made this for The Baron and Joel, I was immediately taken back to my childhood. I even called my sister while we had dinner and she asked for a picture of our meal so she could live vicariously through it lol. I'm so glad that The Baron liked this dish... and he liked it so much that he had seconds! {Actually we all did lol!}

In a small bowl, combine together the soy sauce, oyster sauce, and cornstarch; set aside.

Heat wok or large skillet over high heat and add 2 tablespoons vegetable oil, swirling to coat. Add onion and garlic, cooking until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add ground beef, breaking it up in the wok. Cook, undisturbed, 2 minutes, then stir-fry until meat is browned and most of the rendered liquid is absorbed

Add the cabbage over the ground beef and let it steam undisturbed on top of the beef for about 2 minutes.

Stir soy mixture in the bowl and add to skillet. Stir-fry the cabbage, beef and soy mixture together until sauce is simmering and slightly thickened, 1 to 2 minutes.

This sounds delicious and very easy. I plan to try it in the next day or so, but I have one question. I didn't see where you drain the ground beef at any point after you brown it. With 1.5 pounds of ground beef that is going to make a good bit of grease. Do you just put the cabbage and sauce in with all the grease or do you drain the beef first. I know I can drain it myself if I want to but I was wondering how you cook it since you grew up eating it. Also, I'm not sure if you realized it or not but the ingredient list sort of ran together in some places instead of going to the next line for the next ingredient. No worries. I understood it fine. Just gonna mention it. Thanks!!

@Beyond Sunday Morning - I actually cooked off most of the rendered liquid from the beef so there was no need to drain at all. I updated the directions to reflect this so thank you for asking for clarification!